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An Open Letter To Ufology

When did it become okay for you personally to ignore pedophilia, sexual abuse, mental abuse of women, and turn cancer and poverty into farces? When did that happen? When will you stop?

As I write, podcaster Gene Steinberg is pondering his umpteenth newsletter begging people for money to support his lifestyle. Since at least 2006 he has been begging for money from his listeners, his co-hosts, and sometimes his guests. Not money to keep the show going, mind you. Money for bills and rent. Not supplemental income… income.

First there was a family lawsuit from which he would recoup funds and pay you back. Don’t know what happened to that windfall. Then his wife clicked on some online scam that wiped out their bank account. Now he claims he’s been afflicted with a virus at a time when he can’t afford a single sick day. Sick day from what? Begging for cash?

Poverty is a serious issue. It doesn’t deserve to be marginalized and taken advantage of year in and year out by this man who refuses to get a job. It would be fine if he just told his audience, “Look, I don’t want to work. I want podcasting to be my work and I need you to pay me. Deal?” But he doesn’t. He has sob story after sob story, which may or may not be true–Who can tell? Either way he has been a professional beggar for years now. In my opinion, what he’s doing is dishonest and distasteful and he has no reason to stop if loyal listeners of The Paracast won’t stop listening or at least consistently question him.

As I write, hundreds of Stan Romanek fans are sending their love to a man being investigated for possession and distribution of child pornography. Who among you sends love to the kid(s) in the photos? Why are you sending love to a known hoaxer and possible pedophile? Because you find it easier to believe that a man with a clearly fake alien peeking in his window, who has failed a lie detector test concerning his alleged alien experiences, who has been caught faking audio high strangeness during one interview, and visual high strangeness during another, is a saint?

What?

Well, see, the government could be doing this to him the way they sabotaged Wendelle Stevens, supporter of the Billy Meier hoax, with a pedophilia charge to which he pled guilty and served prison time. Apparently, the establishment really hates it when people fake alien encounters or support them. Those people get illegally locked away for horrendous crimes they didn’t commit. Meanwhile, the people who have made the most positive impact in ufology live in relative peace.

Let me ask you supporters of these men: Is your need to believe so great that you will forgive or deny arguably the most heinous crime a human being can commit just to keep that alien dream alive? Were none of you sexually abused as children? Do you not know of sexual abuse victims in your life?

And in the case of Romanek you say, “Innocent until proven guilty.” And I say you’re right. But I also say “Guilty if found guilty.” Will you say the same or will you hide behind the “people were out to silence him” line?

You know what you’re going to do. You’re going to “win” either way to preserve your beliefs. And you think this is enlightened behavior?

As I write this, I’m remembering back to a time when Steven Greer’s associate and presumed friend died of cancer. And then he said he had cancer, too, but he fended it off through the mysterious powers of being Steven Greer. He tried to convince us that the evil establishment gave them this cancer to silence them forever–although I’m sure if I go back and closely examine what he said, he never outright stated that. He probably said something like, “People have told me this is what happened” or “Close sources told me” or “My good friend Europe told me….” Something that misleads you and affords him deniability.

Cancer. Really? He beat cancer through meditation and a Joker smile? He’s a hero fighting government-sponsored assassination? This man is still allowed to profit around here, why?

Are there no cancer survivors offended by Dr. Greer’s statements? None?

As I write this, two whistle blowers are being stalked and harassed over the internet by zealous fans of David Jacobs and Budd Hopkins. They are both women, so naturally they are called hysterical and crazy by sexist pigs who would rather not see their heroes’ reputations tarnished by some anonymous bitch and a vengeful ex wife.

I guess we just need to forget all of the clear, well-presented and damning evidence that the anonymous woman was ever mentally abused and used for a book project and as a pawn in a delusional fantasy by David Jacobs and the fact that his entire –ENTIRE–defense is that she’s crazy because she used to believe the evil alien-hybrid fiction he was prepping her with under hypnosis and now she doesn’t? Overlook all that, do we? And continue to heap abuse after abuse on this woman who has kept her rational calm for years against the raving lunatics who would sooner see her die than help her?

Because why? Because they read his books and liked them? Saw him speak and thought he was a charming professor? You choose liking books about aliens over helping a fellow human being bring the author to some kind of justice? She can’t afford to seek justice through a court. How about excising Jacobs from the “community”? That would do. Never give him another speaking engagement or media platform to speak. That would do. But no. No, he’s the victim because you like his books.

Meanwhile, the other woman hears this woman’s story and actually does want to do the human thing. She wants to make sure this never happens again. So she speaks her truth–backed up with similarly well-presented facts–that her ex husband, the late Budd Hopkins, willingly allowed himself to be taken for a ride by hoaxers and did some pretty awful research, more-so than he ever admitted. And what does she get for her efforts? What does she get for doing the right thing in ufology and exposing the terrible science that effectively came to define abduction research and changed the lives of the subjects involved in his work? She gets censored and harassed and has sexist insults slung at her. For years. By adults.

Oh, she’s the angry ex. Oh, she’s crazy. Oh, this is a woman scorned getting revenge for… we don’t know because we aren’t in their lives, we just like his books and assume she’s out to get him because that’s what we’re told to think by his friends. So let’s try to get her videos banned from youtube and her web presence shut down. Let’s ignore all of the factual evidence presented and make this about personalities. Let’s erase reality.

***

Interested Parties In Ufology, tell me this: Is it possible that we’ve been searching for aliens in a D-list celebrity culture for so long that we’ve lost our humanity?

Look, I don’t really think any of you set out to ignore pedophilia, sexual abuse, and mental abuse of women. I don’t for one minute believe you find the turning of cancer and poverty into farces for applause or a buck acceptable behavior in a serious study of UFOs and related topics. I think the problem is that you never saw it that way–but it is that way. That is what’s happening. When you read it here, is it not sobering? Just slightly?

I think when we get wrapped up in hero worship or a show that we listen to so often it becomes a part of our lives, we tend to lose track of what’s actual. As Jeff Ritzmann once taught me, these things become a part of us and any voice that speaks against them is speaking against us. At least it feels that way, right? Like there are two sides and now you must pick one and so you’re going to pick the one you’ve been on all along. The problem with that is, there are not two sides. There’s the reality that sometimes even the personalities we’ve accepted at face value or welcomed through our radios and televisions and books–sometimes those people screw up. And sometimes they are screw ups who never did anything good to begin with. But that doesn’t mean you have to act like them or defend them to the last. And it doesn’t mean the topics in ufology are rendered invalid simply because a hoaxer was identified or the guy promoting himself as a spiritually advanced partner of the alien turns out to be a sociopath. It doesn’t even mean you have to stop listening to your favorite show–just tell the host enough, already. This behavior stops or you’re flipping the dial.

At the end of the day you can’t control the sanity of the person on the other end of that media divide. You can’t control their truthfulness. You can only be responsible for you. Like I said, I feel certain that most of you don’t want to support sexual abuse, sexism, cancer hoaxes, hoaxes in general, and deceptive poverty claims, because this isn’t the movies and you’re not evil villains. I just think you might not have thought about these things this way. But try to now. Imagine being a fresh face wanting to examine ufology and this is what you find. Hoaxes and abuse. The putting on a pedestal of fake military whistle blowers while real ufological whistle blowers are covered up. That’s what we have now.

***

As I write this I know I will be attacked six ways from Sunday for doing so. Someone will try to take this website down; someone will plot their revenge. But you know what? Somebody’s got to say it out loud. Hopefully next time it’s you.

Maybe there won’t be a need after that.

—————

NOTE: In the interest of fairness, I edited these lines regarding Gene Steinberg from the original: He lost his last known job many, many, many years ago because he begged a coworker for cash to the point where, apparently, his boss stepped in and canned him. I know this because he told me.

While I maintain this is true, Gene says it is not. (Please see comments section for our exchange.) I hope it is obvious to most readers that I’m not going to sabotage my own article about morality and ethics by lying–especially when editing it out does nothing to change the situation: year in and year out Gene begs for money to pay his bills giving an evolving set of reasons. This he does not deny. Or stop.

Thank you, kindly. If you have the time, I’d like to hear some similar stories from other threads of the paranormal tapestry. Or read about them if you have some links you trust. I want to see how widespread this is.

Agreed: Innocent until proven guilty, and guilty if found guilty. No doubt whatsoever. I feel it is wrong, however, to prejudge someone as guilty of such a terrible, disgusting and vile offense before a trial has been held, and a verdict has been made. Name calling, physically assaulting — is that necessary? NONE of us can say we know the truth except the accused. NOW is not the time to take sides. We must all walk the fence, and let the legal system do it’s job. It’s not perfect, but it’s all we have.

When events such as this, whether it is an obvious legal or humanitarian offense or an obvious case of discrediting and/or debunking take place, The Ufology community must pull together, become unified, so that whatever the outcome, we can put it to rest and move forward. Truthfully, no one person in this field is any better than the other, regardless of fame, fortune, number of books published or presentations given. No one has the answer — thus we are all the same, all searching. Celebrity is poison. In-fighting, name calling, finger pointing and uncalled for accusation does nothing but drive a wedge between all of us, leaving our science like a fish out of water, desperately searching for the pond that gave it life.

Let’s get on with our task of researching, helping people, and finding answers! Let’s wait for the verdict before we react, regardless of who or what the case may be…!

Great post, Sir Jeremy. I believe that a lot of people in the ufo and alien abduction field have lost touch with their humanity, if they had any to begin with, of course. Jacobs books are extremely violent pornographic science fiction fantasies that people seem to lap up in their droves. They do not seem to care whether they are real or not. They buy them simply for the titillation factor. They are so ashamed of this fact, that they deny their guilt by taking on the idea that Jacobs’ scenario is in fact real, and is happening all around us now. They do not question the logic or sanity of believing that aliens are breeding with people, and putting them in apartments in major cities to learn how to cope and live within human society without being seen. They don’t seem to have any capacity to tell between what is real and what isn’t at all.

There is, of course, not a scrap of evidence to show for any of this. But people who buy Jacobs’ books do not actually need evidence to believe in any thing, anyway. They have a crazy, fundamentalist religion mindset. Some bloke with a Ph.D in history says its all true so it must be. He is their god, so it is all true, and no one should doubt his word in any way. If they do then they are heretics. Burn them.

But why should anyone believe the supporters either. Just doing a little digging around on “Sean F Meers(tm)”, and his pseudonym “kruggutter”, doesn’t bring up that much. We know very little about this guy who apparently lives in Australia, and seems to enjoy visiting forums filled with big, beautiful women who seem to have a strange penchant for wardrobe malfunctions. He also seems to visit forums dedicated to the extremely popular computer/video game, Grand Theft Auto, which puts you in the position of being a low life gangster rampaging around a city, stealing cars, killing other gangsters and trying to make your way up the criminal ladder. That’s about all we know about him, and it doesn’t exactly picture him as a particularly saintly guy, does it? Why should we believe in him more than someone like Carol Rainey, or Emma Woods who actually have evidence to show for what they are talking about? Which is more than he does.

And as for the people who still support Romanek. It really is amazing how far people will go to delude themselves that their hero is not what everyone else suspects him of being or doing. Anyone with any shred of intelligence would see the alien puppet at the window for what it is. Most people would understand that audio you mentioned would prove beyond any shadow of a doubt that he is a hoaxer, and a hapless one at that. However, some people it seems need many bashes over the head before they start to see sense.

I will therefore repeat something I mentioned on a forum years ago about his supposed mathematical equations given to him by an alien … or whatever (I’m starting to lose interest now :D). I know a little about mathematics and physics to know what a real equation looks like. Equations should “balance”. What is on the left of an equals sign should balance what is on the right. When I saw some of the equations he wrote down, they didn’t in fact balance. In fact, there were bits missing on the right hand side meaning that they were in fact gibberish. That was it for me with Romanek. Another hoaxer/shyster in a field of hoaxers and shysters.

As for old Gene Steinberg (a candidate for one of the living dead if ever there was one), he did have a job or company or something called “Numis Gems” several years ago. I mentioned once that he put a fake review on his ITunes Paracast page some years ago written by someone with the user name, “Numis Gems”. I think he gave some lame excuse as to why that was up there. I cannot remember now what that was. Anyway, I believe that the company went bust. If memory serves me right, he didn’t file many tax returns or some such. Gene probably thought that he didn’t have to, and the IRS guys were retarded or something for asking him to send them to them. So that was the end of that thread.

But this is just part of a pattern for Gene that goes back many, many years. He has no scruples, or sense of decency whatsoever, and feels that its ok to plead poverty and try to wring as much money from people as is possible, and prevent discussion on this or whatever topic urks him. He is basically just a sad little man with power and money issues.

There needs to be a biblical cleansing of sorts throughout the whole of ufo and alien abduction research. A biblical deluge to clean the field of the hucksters and perverts, shysters and conmen, agents and misogynists, psychopaths and just plainly horrible people who seem to habit these strange little fields of study. Only then will we be able to start again, and maybe start to get a handle on what it is that is actually going on around us.

As to Harvey’s statements: Go to numisgems.com and tell me whether the business, run by my brother-in-law, is real. He also gave a favorable review to my tech show some years ago, not The Paracast. Nobody cares. Tell me how many reviews on iTunes are either by friends of the hosts, rivals who attack the shows, rather than just independent people. This is an absurd distraction, which is why Ufology is in such a state of disgrace.

Could be worse. I spend a lot of time on my PC playing Minecraft, and talking to the sheep, and the cows, and the pigs, and the chickens. I have a favourite sheep called Parsnips, and I built him a house complete with a double bed and big screen television. Also a garden with an outdoor recreation area. Pity that he ignores it and just decides to wander off willy-nilly. Oh, well …

I have also been known to play Spelunky, and Morrowind (my second home for years), and S.T.A.L.K.E.R which is the most miserable, hard and depressing game about the area around Chernobyl and the mutants that evolved there since the disaster in 1986. Last night at about 12am not being able to sleep I started and finished a lovely little game called umbragram where you have to match up two silhouettes by putting blocks together, rotating the playing area etc. It sounds better when you actually play it, of course!

So … GTA … not enough weirdness or blocks … or chickens or pigs in it for me. Still with all the mods out there for it … you never know!!! :D

You are free to believe what you want, but you’re not entitled to your facts.

To be short and sweet: I never told you about allegedly being fired by an employer (last or otherwise) because I begged a co-worker for cash. The reason I never told you is because it never happened. When you make up stories such as this, it’s hard to take you say seriously.

Gene, you told me in the Skype “reconciliation” call a couple of years ago. You were more interested in what Jeff and I did for a living than reconciling. You told me you worked at a paper and the editor fired you for asking a co-worker to borrow money–I assume having to do with whatever that lawsuit is/was.

I would not make up lies about you. And I don’t have to. If I edit that out, the rest still stands and since you haven’t mentioned anything else about your section, I take it you agree with the rest of my characterization.

Because I’m fairer than you’ve ever been to me over the years, I’ll strike it out and point readers to the comments here.

thank you. These are not the only stories soon to come out. Sadly, abuse of women that are lead to believe they have been abducted or had an alien encounter has been around for a long time….these are vulnerable people, that need our help and support. They are not easy marks no one will believe as “hey they say they’ve encountered aliens!” I read years ago Greer’s account of having cancer, being a doctor he should be able to offer proof. The UFO conferences where speakers are now “protected” by armed guards (are they really going to open fire on say FBI agents if they show up to “silence” Greer? I would hope the UFO conference leaders would not condone shooting federal officials or police officers) has many would be attendees very nervous. Time to clean house. There are many good people truly investigating the UFO situation that want the truth. Those that are in it just for a buck, or to indulge their egos, or even as a cover up for their own criminal behavior, need to go. It’s unfair to those that truly want to learn more and share and educate others.

No, Jeremy, you misrepresent and fantasize about these alleged Skype communications. The conversation you describe did not take place. You are making up lies about me. The fact is that my original outreach for donations was actually for my sister-in-law and her husband and their severely handicapped child, who were victims of legal harassment. This is not appropriate for discussion here, but, being family, I also gave them my life savings, which is why I fell into serious financial difficulties as a result. It’s family after all.

Anyone interested in donating to me was always able to ask for details before spending a dime. Nobody was deceived. Besides, asking for donations online by bloggers and podcasters is quite a normal practice, as is asking people to pay to listen to a podcast.

There are real issues in Ufology, but you are not helping the discussion when you bring up exaggerated or falsified side issues. So, yes, take it down.

I think it will be obvious to anyone that I’d be a fool to ruin my own article on ethics and morality by lying–especially when those lines aren’t necessary to make the point. A point, which you clearly don’t want to address.

Don’t presume to tell me about ethics and morality when your statements about me consist of lies and exaggerations. There is no way I can take anything you say seriously when you have such a shoddy record in writing about me.

Wow, Gene. You really don’t want to get it, do you? Yes, everyone asks for donations. A pittance to help keep them online or what have you–not to pay their medical, dental, car insurance, rent, and so on for at least the last 8 fucking years! Week in and week out with a new “my dog ate my homework” sob story. Get a god damned job already.

Or… as I said in the letter, admit that you just don’t want to work. You want podcasting to be your job and ask people to pay you for it. It’s not the asking for donations that’s the problem. It’s the dishonesty that surrounds your evolving reasons. If you were asking for chump change you would not need to evolve them. But you want thousands of dollars!

Kittynh, this is the thing that’s really under my skin about all of this… Why do we even have to talk about these things? 1.) How are they not self-evident? 2.) How are these issues at all taking place in what is at best a scientific study of UFOs and surrounding phenomena and at worst a source of entertainment?

As an experiencer I could never knowingly take the stage with a man who claims as much nonsense about UFOs and “ETs” as Greer. Or if I did, I’d have to call him out. But I can see how non-experiencers might be okay with keeping their heads in the sand as long as they get their time. It makes sense to me because they aren’t having the experience so it isn’t that important to them to keep it honest and “police the field.”

Fine.

But when Greer has body guards lock people in a room? When he claims he beat cancer through Greer Power that the government may have given him… those are the types of behaviors that a sane world universally condemns. But not ufology. We want to stick our heads in the sand about that, too.

And it’s not just the people on the stage, it’s the audience. Ultimately it’s in their hands not to pay for this and to demand better. I’d like to think I’m grandstanding by saying, “Shame on you for sending ‘Get Well Soon’ emails to a guy caught with 300 photos and videos of child porn on his computer,” but sadly, confusingly, disgustingly, it’s a point lost on too many people in this.

I’ve lost count how many of his whining and histrionic missives have found their way into my mailbox over the years. That’s very plural, the number and the years. I never signed up for his personal “newsletters”, yet l’m told in every one I’m a “subscriber.” He’s relentless in their duration over four years, and the titles are something to behold. He’s always on the brink or without a paddle, on the verge of eviction and then stuck in a hotel, then more crises great and slightly smaller beset him. It’s in my opinion a campaign of, shall I say it euphemistically, disingenuousness. Another mystery is who exactly gets any money sent, because the solicitations are variously made on his own behalf and on behalf of both hosts. There is the donate button, gofundme, his own personal newsletters, and cries for funds on the regular newsletter for sometimes just him and sometimes for both hosts. Very bewildering and no real transparency or explanation supplied. I’ve saved everything. I refuse to click on any links contained in these begging emails. A commenter elsewhere noted that she had been removed and then they had resumed. I say get a job. Shifts of even minimum wage would pay his bills.

Yes, real people have been hurt through abduction scenarios and hypnosis, just like real people were hurt through hypnotically discovering they were victims of satanic ritual abuse. There are armed guards at conferences. People willingly listen to Sean David Morton, even after the SEC judgment against him. Others believe tales spin by a prisoner serving a life sentence for murder who emerged years later with claims of being a pilot in the space command. And the truth us still out there, if it exists at all.

Things were a lot simpler when people like Adamski may have wanted us to believe their tales, but the ultimate goal of the Space People was world peace.

Sorta surprised to stumble on this blog rant you’ve got going. While I can understand your rant
on someone like Romanak I’m baffled on your rant with Steinberg. The Paracast is one of the more consistent podcasts available. Steinburg and his co-host supply weekly two hour interviews , a newsletter and 24/7 forums that are fairly active compared to most of the forums out there. Asking for a donation periodically seems reasonable. No-one has to give anything to listen to the podcasts or use the forums. Not only is it free but there’s years of archived interviews to sift through. Seems kinda shady on your part to call out someone on the net for doing something so mundane as ask for a donation. It also seems like you’ve got some personal issue going on here to want to dictate what Mr. Steinberg should be doing with his personal time and in how he earns his living. It’s like your wildly swinging at anything in your path to make a point that’s kinda lost when you drag random names to prop up as case examples. If folks weren’t making any money in Ufology there’d be very little contributed. Whether someone writes books, makes documentary’s, does radio or podcasts, it’s time consuming. Getting periodic donations makes sense. I see you have a donation button also. I’d imagine you’ve also expected to get paid for your books/documentaries. You don’t blog enough to warrant a donation though. In fact….come to think of it….why do you want money for what little you offer on this blog? There’s no podcast, no forum, no newsletter? What exactly do you want a donation for?

hey there,,, wow,, reading that was fun!! i have some thoughts on this subject but i am a bit too much into the mardi gras mood right now to get into. first thing wednesday afternoon, though. anyone want to go see the uptown parades with my and the rock today??? that would be okeanas, mid-city, thoth and bacchus,, all on the uptown route. the best free show on a sunday. and then, in two daze when it is tuesday in the rest of the world, it is mardi gras day here. krewe of zulu, rex and truck parades for hours and hours. what a way to bring in lent.

aright, the reason for the post,,, can someone refer me to the dolan posts??? where can i find them??? now that i have seen hopkins attacked, we can move on to dolan and then, watch out stanton. (what the heck am i gonna do with my time then??) truthfully, now that i have admitted to myself that i am indeed a fan rather than my previously seeming false self concept of objectivity i guess i have some further self evaluations to do. dolan has been a real favorite of mine, as his background in history appeals to my near 20 years in the classroom, albeit high school history. i truly enjoy listening to the man and reading his tomes. i must admit, though, i do find his fans somewhat sycophantic devotion and praise of his every move somewhat offputting. because, of course, i am above that. i am a sophisticated fan.

allright,, till wednesday,,, could someone please share with me where to find dolan’s comments on this column/website.

Exposing Budd Hopkins’ bad science/resting his hat on frauds/sculpting the data is not attacking him. Calling out the sickness in this field is not “fun” to me. I don’t think this is the thread for a mardi gras report. All of that is why I left this post unpublished. But if you want to see it, here it is.

Don’t accept the old order. Get rid of it. All free thinkers unite against these charlatans, buffoons and sycophants. Ignoring them hasn’t worked. They haven’t gone away. The time has come to stand up and shout “YOU SIR ARE TALKING SHIT”!!!! .

i am wondering why my comment of march 2 is still awaiting moderation,, does that mean i didn’t meet minimum standards??? anyhow,,, briefly…. one of the unfortunate (imo, anyway) consequences of internet usage and particularly comment sections is that we all have become experts,,, in everything. it has become amazingly common and perfectly acceptable to comment on subjects that one has no knowledge or background in. these pronouncements are oftentimes not germane to the subject. building an argument on false premises is of course like putting together a table with legs that won’t stand. the top might be stunning but it won’t function as a table. with so much expertise it is no wonder the subject has become what it has. too many cooks, too many chiefs, whatever analogy one chooses to use we are left with the same mess.

As an experiencer I class myself as more expert than some by virtue of the fact that I have experienced the phenomena, oddly enough. I couldn’t even begin to put a label on what ‘it’ is,but my intuition tells me that it is more bizarre and wondrous than what it’s presenting itself to be. Are there really any experts in this field? As far as I’m concerned the man in his armchair taking a hit of DMT is just as likely to have an insight into the phenomena as the investigator out in the field. I do not profess to be an expert, nor would I want to be because that to me is completely missing the point. I myself cannot abide the so called big names on the circuit because they always stretch the narrative to fit their own beliefs and agendas.and they spout just as much dis-information as the governments that they profess are doing the same. Some of us have just had enough of their bullshit. There is a divide between the experiencers who don’t know what ‘it’ is, but on some unconscious level do know what ‘it’ is and the nuts and bolts evangelists who claim they do know what ‘it’ is but in fact don’t know what ‘it’ is. So hey, no expert here. It is, and probably will always be ‘it’ to me.

See my previous post above. I’d like to point dear readers of this article about the person who’s been engaged in years and years long begging to the ufomag blog. There with some searching can be found additional information about this man’s money solicitation campaign. It’s been truly of epic proportions, and if you’ve the unlucky and unwilling recipient of this man’s missives the articles and comments there will have your ribs splitting. This guy has no shame at all in my opinion. I’m of his generation and still working. Get a job and get the H€!! out of my mailbox! The nerve of you “subscribing” unwitting people to your interminable, pulingly silly, whiny, demanding, and just plain obnoxious boo hoo stories for years! And why isn’t your cohost telling you the same?

Just received another “personal” newsletter asking for money in my personal mailbox. Get that? My personal mailbox. “Still Hoping for a Miracle!” it’s entitled, and this is the very least of the histrionic titles heading his personal “newsletters” over the years. And on a certain forum, reopening a thread he said he’d closed, entitled, aptly enough, “Donating to the…”, is a post coyly acknowledging, yet again, that we are all tired of his money “donation” requests, but…. donations asked! Again, my bewilderment: in every “regular” newsletter is a request for donations for both hosts, and a plea to use the donate button on the site to provide remuneration for the hosts’ (plural) work. Yet in the “personal” newsletters his own requests for him alone tell us to use the donate button on the site. So, if the donate button is used to send money, just exactly who gets the money, just him, or is it divided between the two hosts? More ways are given in his personal newsletters to get your money to him, including direct mail, though he points out that he prefers a money order or bank check because, well, our personal checks take a week to become solvent and for the money to find its merry way into his pocket. In the forum, too, is a thread about the vehicles the wise sages of the forum drive, and he tells a poster that that poster’s 23,000 miles he’s put on his car over some years is what he drives in 18 months. Wow. A lot more than I drive per year. Where is he driving? To a job? Perhaps so, and perhaps he has a job. I’m not saying he doesn’t, but the minimum wage in his state is just short of $8/hour. I figure four eight hour shifts per week would go a long way to solving his financial crises (that’s plural for crisis).

I’m about ready to donate to Tim Binnall. His donate button, and this is a point made elsewhere by others about podcast donation requests and a point well attested from my own experience, is very unobtrusive and, yes, benign. It’s not accompanied by a campaign into people’s mailboxes for years. I listen to podcasts such as Tim’s where clearly the occasional (IF AT ALL) request is very low key and, frankly, deserved for what is provided. It’s not a concerted campaign for lots (lots) of money for rent, utilities, and other bills. The latest plea has him promising to give a portion of the donations to an ill relative. Does he have an ill relative? Perhaps so, but…

I call for a halt, a real cessation, stoppage, and all encompassing END to this.

In fact, I’m going to donate a bit to Tim for sure, and to a couple more hosts of podcasts I listen to regularly.

I maintain that this man has time to podcast and work some number of shifts per week in order to meet his financial obligations. I resent his years long appearance in my mailbox, and I worry that some may be giving him money better spent on themselves, their children, and their grandchildren. This man’s crises (plural) go on and on and on interminably. How much longer will they go on?

Have you ever asked him how they divvy up the money between funds received through the website’s impersonal donations tab and the personal pleas for evolving crises? (And the same question should be asked of Steve Bassett who fundraises through a variety of “groups” that are actually just him, and into which all monies funnel to one bank account–his.)

I only hope that the great frequency, long time duration and unbelievable persistence, and the laughably (if they weren’t so nervy) lachrymose intensity of the “personal newsletters” actually point to a paucity of donations. Though this is not a mathematically sound observation, in my opinion, and put very euphemistically, most, most by far of the posts on the forum are made by a tiny, tiny number of posters who seem to inhabit the “place” a lot. I don’t listen to the show anymore, same guests over and over, and the ads, as said elsewhere many times, are horrible, loud, absurd, and downright, ahem, disingenuous in their claims, medical included. I just pop over to the forum every once in a while to get a laugh at what I think is an intense sycophancy among the ” regular” and few posters. Where do they get the time to post so many so long and tortured posts, and do they work? These are merely rhetorical and existential questions which are asked from an admitted ignorance, but I do ask them honestly and would like to know. I still work, and find posting here and there very, very occasionally an effort I have to squeeze in.

My main point is that people should exercise great, great, and extreme caution if they are considering donating to someone who puts so much sustained effort through so many years in campaigning for money. When I get his “personal newsletters” (how did I ever get on his mailing list?) I think of the quite elderly to very elderly people I see still working. There is also a sense of accomplishment in working, and a social interaction that is fulfilling. I maintain yet again that this man should get in the specific car he names on the forum and drive to, say, just four eight hour shifts per week. Again, he may have a job, but his personal newsletters specifically point out how he cannot get a job, so who knows?

Well, I’ve had my say, I got to go to work, so I’m going to go silent on this subject. I’ve saved all he’s sent me, I refuse to click on any links in his emails, and I’ll continue chuckling and saving. Irritating though it is, I have no control over it really, just want people to spend the even five bucks they may contemplate sending him on their grandchildren.

Well, ok, one more post! I want to clarify my phrase “…posting here and there…” in my post just above. I meant that in the colloquial, slang sense of here and there. I didn’t mean this man’s site in particular, but on the web, well, here and there! I have posted at his site, way, way, and way again in the distant past when the program was really something, before it became what in my opinion it is today, and I’ll leave that to your own imagination. I never dreamed I’d end up on his list to receive “An Important Update From…” newsletter or his latest personal “newsletters.” What an invasion. I can only imagine that by signing up for the forum and newsletter many (many) years ago I became “subscribed” to his personal emails with their histrionic titles, boo hoo stories, and shameless begging, replete with agonizing details about eviction and bills. The author of this blog is correct. My posts here speak only to his views on this man and his money campaign, and there is great truth that his campaign marginalizes in my opinion poverty and those truly in need. This man is evidently a great Apple fan, and seems truly knowledgeable about their computers and devices. So why isn’t he working shifts at an Apple store? He has mentioned the “Genius Bar” in his personal money solicitation emails to my box, but only in the context of the Apple store eliminating his own past computer consulting. So why not apply for a job there? There have to be Apple stores in his area.

I really cannot believe that gene is still up to his old tricks. I stopped listening to the paracast years ago because of his weirdness. In fact I finally just abandoned an email address as I asked numerous times to be taken off of his mailing lists but I still received his panhandler alerts.

The thing that really gets me is that I cannot figure out if he is conniving or clueless. I do not see how he can honestly think that the donations he is asking for is no different from the donations that other shows (i.e. Tim Binnal, Jim Harold etc) ask for.

For christs sake. Number one they are not spamming their email lists, they have a donation button which they briefly mention during their shows.

Also, as has already been mentioned, they ask for donations for the show itself to keep it up and running. They are not asking for money to pay their rent and medical bills. Big difference their Gene, big fucking difference. Also, it may be hard for you to find a job you want, but finding a job is not hard at all. My aunt is a manager at walmart and I happen to know for a fact that walmart is always hiring and they will hire pretty much anybody. It would not be a fun job I imagine, but, sometimes you gotta go what you gotta do Gene.

I again encourage readers to go to the ufomag blog, or enter in, say, this man’s first and last name and begging money, no quotes necessary, in google. Something along that line will give you some interesting results. But definitely click on the link “An Urgent Summer Update From…” and read that rib splitter of an article from August, 2011. Then read all three pages of comments. The third page has the full text of one of his emails during his eviction in late 2012. If you were an unwilling “subscriber” to his personal “newsletters” you will remember what a time that event was. Not for him, I mean, but for us having to be the recipients of such pathos. These were emails of such histrionic intensity as to beggar belief. Sorry, pun intended.

In that very email, in fact, is his mention of the “several Apple Stores” in his area and their Genius Bars that put a crimp in his “Mac computer consulting.” Then why isn’t he, or why HASN’T he in all these years been working at one of those Apple stores? He writes about all sorts of arcane stuff about Apple products and Apple stock and Apple this and Apple that. So why hasn’t he been driving some of those nearly 16,000 miles per year in his Kia Optima to shifts at one of these stores? It beggars belief, but he still persists in his money solicitation and sob stories.

Now if I’m wrong and he does have a job someplace, a real shift job of at least 32 hours per week I mean, he should let us know. If he does have a real job, he should have stopped begging long ago. But his newsletters let us know he’s been unable to get a job. Hmmmm.

My very last comment on this subject (I promise) is why his cohost doesn’t answer the questions I posted about division of money received through the donate button, which is suggested to be used in the regular newsletter for BOTH hosts but also as a method to send his senior host money solicited by him in his personal emails for him alone. What about money the main host gets from gofundme or comes to him at his technightowl email address or is mailed directly to his home, yet another way you and your hard earned money can part ways and not get to your children and grandchildren? I’d like the junior host’s views on his host’s years and years long solicitations, especially as it concerns him, because money for both hosts is asked for in every “regular” newsletter. How are funds received distributed between themselves, because donations are solicited for the junior host, too?

Most likely the case, Jeremy, while his “senior” host is notorious for what is being discussed here. I must say and should have said that the junior host has never solicited money directly. I’ve never seen it. He’s seems quite likable, in fact, and very competent on the radio. I’m not really into his specific field of research, but I do plan on buying his book. I enjoyed his others. Evidently Stalking the Herd is quite a tome, and I can’t help but admire him for, well, clearly working hard. He also works a day job/jobs I think. So the question was meant informationally, because the “senior” host has had a real campaign going for years with several “avenues” provided to funnel money to him. Again, he should be working in an Apple store. He clearly has the skills. If he HAS been working, he shouldn’t be continuing his money solicitations into listeners’ personal mailboxes.

Just to illuminate and hold to the light how “donations” have in my view become a habit, a staple, a constant, a just life as usual thing with him is his latest post at the forum on the thread about “Bitcoin.” He writes, “I am so glad I stopped taking Bitcoin donations. Talk about a can of worms.” So, is it necessarily implicit in this statement that he actually received donations in that currency? In light of the latest news about this “currency” were there really donations made to him in it? He jumped on this Bitcoin donation link rather abruptly recently, “Bitcoin” went sour, he removed the link, and now sounds like he didn’t institute yet another method of funneling money to himself, that he saw the light and has quickly recanted. I took a screen shot of the post. Such utter nerve. Such entitlement. Such overweening arrogance, like in his begging “newsletters” where he discourages ( the utter nerve) his “subscribers” from sending personal checks because he can’t liquidate them as quickly as his suggested and “preferred” money order or bank check. Think about it. Years and years of spamming emails of the most histrionic nature, and he whiningly details to his captive audience that he eschews their personal checks and coyly demands more solvent paper when direct mailing is chosen to get their “payment” to him. Jeremy is so, so correct. This is distasteful and dishonest.

I went to an Apple store today with my iPad. Those stores are busy, semi chaotic places, actually rather mesmerizing in their way, with the employees and the attendant “Geniuses” scurrying about, not a moment to relax. The one who helped me at my appointment time was superb and polite, and I left with a good feeling. Yet the place is run with a stunning and somewhat disconcerting efficiency that is amazing. You’re made to feel as if you’re the only person in there, which is good, yet I also picked up that those employees were really, well, worked hard. And in light of my recent suggestions that this man who lives and writes Apple should actually apply, get hired, and really work for remuneration at what he preaches I wondered to myself why he doesn’t (evidently) do it. The pay seems pretty darn good, no more begging, after all, but what prevents the leap to actually doing it? With what he writes about Apple, and with the utter vehemence with which he defends Apple, often very impolitely so to posters holding contrary views on the forum, you’d think he’d leap at applying to one of the “several” Apple stores he himself says are in his area and, well, doing (WORKING) at what I observed store employees were doing today, some of them clearly my own age, and I’m of this man’s own generation. So I ask him, why aren’t you working at an Apple store?You say you have a Kia Optima you put 16,000 miles per year on, you live and breathe Apple, so why aren’t you working there for the “living wage” Apple does pay and which you say in your emails you cannot find a job to pay?

Well, it’s right there in front of you, evidently in “your area” and well arrived at by getting in your Kia and giving a portion of the 16,000 miles toward achieving. Which is the more human, the more decent, the more honorable path? Earn your own living, and let money you constantly try to wrest from people go to themselves, their children, their grandchildren, and to charities which help people truly in need. You have computer skills I can only begin to fathom, Apple/Mac skills. Why are you not putting them to use to help people in a practical way that will, true, demand of you personal “people” skills, too, and give you a deserved remuneration, not these “donations” you trumpet as your right?

How much more honorable and decent would this be, rather than that tired, old, and oft repeated saw in many of your “newsletters” about the synagogue that gave you $100 as a, as you phrase it, “one time favor” as if you are coyly telling us you resent that it was only “one time”? What did you expect, a weekly “donation” of $100?

You know, I’m truly through with posting about this man who, well, lives as he does. All of us share the human condition, with its attendant joys and travails, and he is no exception. But I remember a commenter on this subject on the ufomag blog who told him upfront to pull up his pants and get to work. This was coming on three years ago. How much longer will this go on? 16,000 miles per year in a Kia Optima and not a mile of it to a job. Or am I wrong?

Enter in this man’s first and last name, then 2014 Kia Optima. No quotation marks needed. Wow, oh wow, couldn’t believe what I read on the first link shown. In mid December when the personal “newsletters” were gaining a new momentum of frequency (they never actually stop, of course!) and intensity, he traded in his 2011 Honda for a 2014 Kia Optima EX with Premium. His profile and posts are all there to read. I took screen shots of everything. This is beyond belief. But I’m sure there is some sort of reasonable explanation, because in one his very recent emails he tells us he was out of money, but then in another following how due to donations he was able to keep the power and water on.

To clarify, I of course meant enter that into Google, and the link is to Optima Forums, where you can clearly see his pride, even giddiness, in his new acquisition. Yet, as is stated above, his “personal newsletters” recently (and as they do always) piteously tell us he is out of money for those pesky bills and necessities such as rent (for him not only currently due but back rent, too), groceries, AUTO INSURANCE (costs more I would guess to insure a 2014 Kia Optima EX with Premium package than a 2011 Honda Accord), power, water, his wife’s medical needs he tells us about, and, well, you know, those things responsible adults work to pay for. I’m sure the dealership didn’t give him this Optima as a mere switch for the Accord! So, where did the money to buy this new car come from?

“The Situation Has Worsened” he tells us in his latest “personal newsletter,” I received today unsolicited in my personal mailbox and he fears he can’t keep “the wolves at bay” much longer without our help. And, again, he tells us his wife’s health insurance payments are late. He keeps invoking his wife’s health. Then why four months ago did you buy a 2014 Kia Optima EX with Premium? You say you’re late on auto insurance payments, too, but didn’t the trade in of the 2011 Honda Accord for the Optima raise your rates? I think people deserve answers, and I fear people may indeed be giving money to this man. Quit your spamming and begging! This has reached a height of distastefulness no words can describe. Have you no self respect? Let’s hear an explanation of why you traded in a late model Honda Accord for a 2014 Kia Optima EX with Premium package and then continue to whine about auto insurance premiums that are not paid. And your wife’s health insurance in jeopardy? Or so you say. Just what is the truth? Nobody should give this man a damn penny.

Go to edmunds.com and read about that 2014 Kia Optima EX with Premium package. This man is ridin’ nice and smooth indeed! Loaded! Panoramic sunroof, Uvo ( look it up!), rearview camera, HEATED STEERING WHEEL, Infinity sound system, heated front and rear seats to keep his bum warm, and the list of creature comforts goes on and on. Only the best. Yet TODAY I received another of his “personal newsletters,” entitled “The Situation Has Worsened.” In this one tragedy looms, even homelessness, with a “patient” landlord becoming less so, NEW electric and water bills (by gosh, those DO come every month!), his wife’s health insurance payments overdue, and on and on ad nauseam. Yet he just bought a 2014 Kia Optima EX (with Premium, he never fails to inform his fellow Kia Optima owners on the Optima Forums). So, by his own telling his own wife’s health insurance payments are overdue, yet he buys a loaded 2014 car, trading in a no doubt very well performing mere adolescent of a Honda Accord. Why, that poor 2011 Accord had a bright and long life ahead of it, and now he’s paying higher insurance bills for the Kia (which themselves are late). Yet, his WIFE’S health insurance….. Got to stop, my head can’t handle the illogic of all this. Unceasing spamming into people’s mailboxes for money with never ending tales of woe and mishap, yet he buys a 2014 Kia Optima EX. Oh, yeah, WITH PREMIUM. Heated steering wheel, my royal A$$!

I wish someone had the brass to go on the forum and ask these questions, Jeremy. Not brashly or venomously, but with finesse, worded politely yet assertively. Questions benignly and benevolently put, but pointed and sharp. This way the post could not legitimately be summarily removed. If answered, then more would follow. Someone needs to get the truth, or at least his truth, out of him. These years of emails he so coyly labels “An Important Message from…”, filled with these revolving and as you say evolving sob stories, need to be confronted on the forum by him, because he has utilized the addresses of people who signed up for the site’s newsletter, not his own interminable personal “newsletters.” Where this atrocity and invasion began is where the questions should be asked. I think the stark dichotomy between purchase/lease of this new car and the sob stories is a good basis for the first question. How do you reconcile this begging with the acquisition of a new car? Explain that truthfully. I find it hard to believe he’s getting more than small amounts of money, but who knows? Cumulatively it may have added up. People need to know the facts.

But who’s got the brass BA%%S to take the questions to the forum? And money is solicited in the regular newsletters, too, sometimes for both hosts. I think it’s incumbent on his cohost to speak up. Surely he knows about the new car and how starkly that contrasts with the years long begging he knows he does. Why hasn’t the junior host spoken out, for the sake of honesty and decency? How do you beg for money and send people emails about your crises for years yet you buy a new car?

Wish someone would go on the forum and question him. Isn’t his behavior not only unethical but perhaps indeed crosses the line from distasteful behavior to, well, it can’t be ok to obtain money under such pretences. Again, this new car is a defining moment in this whole years long campaign of his to extract money from people, a relentless campaign buttressed with sob stories. And now this new car, a stark wake up that things are, ahem, a bit fishy.

I’m glad he’s so happy over his new Optima. Found a post of his on another Kia forum, and I’ll let it speak for itself with some excerpts.

“If anything, I like the interior better on the 2014 and the exterior changes do not seem so drastic. The seats are also redesigned…My final decision was to buy a silver 2014 EX with Premium package, which is far better than its predecessor, a 2011 Accord EX-L V6.”

“…Seats are really better on the Optima. The Accord was notorious for a little too much lumbar support…I thought I’d be suffering a lot with a four cylinder non-turbo, but not so much in the real world. The Kia’s Harmon Infinity radio is far superior to the Accord’s “premium” audio system….”

Etcetera, etcetera. I feel more and more sorry for that 2011 Honda Accord with its too generous lumbar support and inferior audio system. Poor thing. Try as it no doubt did, it could evidently not meet the high and exacting standards demanded of it. Neither could the 2013 Honda Accord, evidently under consideration, too, because he says of it, “…I didn’t see much improvement in the redesigned 2013 Honda.”

It must have been this very 2011 Honda Accord he alluded to in one of his series of “newsletters” during the saga of his Fall, 2012 eviction process. I checked my pile of his missives to ME, unsolicited of course, and found his “newsletter” of September 30, 2012, entitled “This is a Dire Emergency.” If evicted, he told us, “…I can afford maybe a day or two in hotel; then I’d be forced to live in the car (until the bank takes it back, since payments are late).” I think this late model and no doubt stellar performing Accord was not given its due by being traded in for the 2014 Kia Optima with Premium package. It was ready to do double duty as a domicile as well as its normal duties as superb transportation. A fine way to treat a loyal steed indeed, in my opinion.

The full text of this “newsletter” can be found on the ufomagblog, as I mentioned previously. It’s one of many, many comments to an hilarious article on this subject, and it’s entitled, satirically enough, “An Urgent Summer Update from…” Truly rib splitting and the three pages of comments enlightening.

I plan on driving my own 2006 (!) vehicle for many more miles and many more years. Since I STILL WORK, I could upgrade, but I like my ol’ hoss.

We can only hope his “newsletters” stop. I’ve read comments from people saying that unsubscribing doesn’t work. Someone commenting here noted that he had to abandon an email address.

And it seems to me he has plenty of just plain old TIME on his hands, plenty to podcast AND work at one of those Apple stores, or shifts elsewhere.

It seems that beggars CAN be choosers after all, especially when it comes to 2014 Kia Optimas with Premium package (and heated steering wheels).

From his latest spam into my box, entitled with his ubiquitous exclamation point, “The End May Be Near!”:
“The landlord has given us written notice to catch up on the rent, including several months back rent and late fees…You see, tenants have virtually no rights in Arizona…But in addition to the rent, we have shutoff notices for utilities, and i have to pay my wife’s health insurance…”
He still “prefers” a money order or bank check over our less immediately solvent personal checks, AND, he says, “payment would have to be sent via overnight carrier.”
And he bought a 2014 Kia Optima EX with Premium package a few months ago!

From a post by him on his forum today:
“I gave the landlord one month’s rent, but he wants it all, and boasted that he’s already evicting eight other tenants this month…I am fighting harder than I’ve ever fought in my life…”
Edited later to add:
“If anyone has questions…or wants hard numbers…open a private conversation with me.”
This sounds like his “betrayal” in his fall of 2012 eviction by the company renting him his apartment at that time of histrionic spam emails. My gosh, what a series of pathetic “newsletters” from him then, all of which I’ve saved. The blame he puts on the landlords (plural) is tellingly obvious. What he doesn’t seem to comprehend is the rights of those who rent to him TO THE RENT HE AGREED TO PAY!
And yes, I’d like some hard numbers on the trade in of that 2011 Honda Accord for that Kia Optima EX with Premium package. I’ve got all his posts to Kia forums attesting to that. Here’s my question: If you’re owing “several months back rent” now, why did you trade in a superb 2011 Honda Accord several months ago for a 2014 Kia Optima EX with Premium package?
I think it would be better to spend your hard earned money on yourselves, your children, and your grandchildren than give a penny of it to this man who’s been spamming my mailbox for four and a half years with his manipulative tales of woe.

Well, he’s putting it out there to start a private discussion with him about this. Why don’t you? It seems to be eating away at you. You can end all of this. (But you still won’t be taken off his email list. Not even divine intervention can do that.)

I’m thinking about it. What offends me on a fundamental level is, well, 1. The begging’s incredibly long and relentless duration, 2. Its utter histrionic and victimized tone, 3. The part of me, so ingrained it’s not even thought about, that I’d do any sort of job rather than engage in such a disreputable campaign, 4. The utilization of the shows’ email address lists for this campaign, when I, for example, signed up for a show’s newsletter, not his relentless spamming, or spam ‘n’ begs, I believe Dr. Kokjohn labeled them in a comment on the ufomag blog, 5. The number of people my age and older still working, doing what they need to do and making the best of it, even enjoying it, 6. My utter incomprehension of his not seeing what I see, that if he’d pull up his pants and do some shifts, life would be many times easier. He’d have money so the rent wouldn’t fall behind, and by SEVERAL MONTHS?! But he’d fallen behind by thousands of dollars in the 2012 eviction, so there’s a pattern here, and 7. I wonder, really, what talking to him would accomplish. He’s got an answer for everything, and seems to truly believe them.

I think one of the tiny, tiny number of regular posters on the forum (I’d guess I wouldn’t have to use more than a toe or two past my fingers to arrive at their number) who post, my gosh, 90 something percent of the posts, should post a thread asking him some hard questions. Or, perhaps, it should be a lurker who feels as I do. I can’t believe most by far don’t know the truth.

Bottom line, his behavior repels me, I find it repulsive and reprehensible, and I frankly cringe at the thought of having a conversation with him.

The will to believe in ETs trumps all reason and logic. It is now fortified by a prevailing anti-government sentiment that often reaches that same level of irrationality. What we have is the symbiotic relationship of two largely dysfunctional world views. This is why so many can so readily and unquestioningly totally ignore Stan Romanek’s reprehensible behavior and buy into his empty claims of being targeted by the government for revealing the truth about UFOs.

As for Steinberg, well, we pretty much all have known someone like him at some point in our lives (Wanna’ hear about my cousin Joe? Probably you don’t.). He just works his con in the paranormal community, which shows how smart he isn’t. If he had real smarts he’d be on Wall Street instead.

Yeah, constantly begging others for cash is annoying, but everyone approached is free to say no (same, too, for the airheads who fork over big bucks to Greer and Steve Bassett). Not so for the children who are exploited through people like Romanek’s sceptic tank sludge behavior. There is no comparison between a Steinberg and Romanek, really.

Here’s a question for you: Do you think that on an unconscious level the vociferous ETH-ers know that decades of research hasn’t given them peep and so what fuels their anger isn’t that they know the government/military complex has the truth, but that they know they’ve wasted their lives trying to prove an untruth?

By gosh, yesterday a long time member of the forum whose posts I’ve enjoyed, in the thread entitled “What Kind of Car Do You Drive?”, actually posted, very politely, some questions to the forum owner about his new 2014 Kia Optima EX with Premium package.
I watched and took screen shots of the exchange. It must have just begun.. I saw where the owner altered this member’s text to excise mention of the car. In his response the owner actually copied the ALTERED post he’d changed himself. The member then had a few more posts summarily deleted by the owner. The member was noting that his posts were “disappearing.” He then went back and restored his altered post to include mention of the owner’s new 2014 Kia Optima EX with Premium.
The owner evidently didn’t notice the restoration and it and the owner’s altered copy stayed up for a few hours and then both were deleted.You’d now never know this member had ever posted anything in this thread. Sheer suppression of the mention of the owner’s new car, though it certainly was relevant to the thread’s subject and others had posted details about their cars.
The begging spam emails continue to come to my personal mailbox, and there are posts by the owner on his forum soliciting more money and showing less than proper respect in my opinion to his landlord, whom he used to laud as being “patient.” He’s not so generously described now. But it seems to me that if this man got “several months” behind in rent that the landlord must indeed be long suffering and very patient.
I laud most genuinely this member’s brass and courage for trying to bring this man’s new and newly purchased 2014 Kia Optima EX with Premium package to the attention of people who may be contemplating sending this man money without full possession of the facts.
It seems to me that the treatment of this member and his posts speaks volumes about this man’s desire to keep his 2014 Kia Optima with Premium package a secret.

Well you’ll be glad to know Gene’s former original co-host has taken up the issue of the Optima you discovered. It’s out there on facebook and at least one other site. Whether his plight is honest or dishonest, Gene’s out of time.

Well, Jeremy, as you say it’s all out there on the net, and growing with attendant comments. The glee is apparent, while I think your letter here and my posts assiduously avoided overt and outright glee and rubbing of hands. It seems to me that a few gave some sort of tacit acceptance of the long time solicitation of funds by appearing on the show and/or helping to run the forums. I grew disgusted with the show and forum years ago. By the way, your own appearances on the show were in 2007 and 2008 when the show was really rather a new kind of animal, and before you could have been aware of the extent this man’s solicitations would reach through spamming to listeners’ personal mailboxes starting early 2010.

It was you who with your letter kept the begging issue alive. And the ufomag blog, too. It was I on April 15 who broke the story about the new car on the ufomag blog and on your column here. It would seem that Jeremy and Jack were the first here, and while I agree with many of the comments on facebook and elsewhere regarding the begging, it sounds like some who gave this man a pass are acting like they were on the story first. You and I were in my opinion more careful to just present the facts to make people think carefully before devoting their money to this man rather than to their own families.

I’m not trying to gain any credit here, but it was Jeremy and Jack who got this new car out there. Not pleasant, and I hope that the money solicitations stop.

Well, yeah. That’s the way this works. You write something from the heart that gains popularity, then the blogging/podcasting vultures swoop in to steal it and turn it into “click bait” for themselves. (Ironically, Gene called this essay click bait in his own post against it. He thinks like they do. Very few actually give a shit and so when you do it immediately looks to them like what they do. Then again, he’s the one taking the trouncing so he has to have some defense. Speaking of which, isn’t today D-Day for him where he’s going homeless? Huh. Wonder if that happened. I digress….)

I was thinking about writing a post about all of this if for no other reason than to out Paul Kimball as the disingenuous, pretentious, blah-blah-blah that he is. He attacked Bruce Duensing for refusing to take a moral stand against Gene’s begging when… ya know… Paul was co-host of the Paracast and said nothing. He begged Paul for money and he said nothing. So when did it become morally imperative to speak up? As usual, when public sentiment turned against Gene. He did this with the Emma Woods case, too.

You’d think Rich Reynolds might climb out of Paul’s ass long enough to see all of this and call it because he’s so “honest,” right? Except Paul has it correct about Rich: he really is in ufology because of his interest in the psychology of it all. What interests him most is how to troll the field without ever leaving his blog. Their contempt for everyone around them is more than their bond, it’s their identity. It’s the reason they never go away even when they tell you they are leaving. Every word they write speaks volumes to their psychology and they’re too blind to see it. They’ll read it here and think of ways to “get even” or do “damage control.” That’s all any of this is ever about. It’s arrested development, something I know too much about.

That Lance Moody was booted from the Paracast forum is hilarious. I have no idea why he stuck around that dump after they essentially stole his Phil Imbrogno revelations to try to appear relevant in the face of growing criticism of the way they covered for Jacobs/Hopkins in the Emma Woods aftermath. I guess that’s what you get for trusting Gene when he says you can ask him about his financial situation and he’ll tell you. He’ll tell you to get out!

I’m glad that Jack Sprat saw my little performance art project at the forums–I fear that few folks did. I wish more would do the same kind of thing.

Jeremy–you are WAY too hard on Paul. How and when someone comes to a truth is not always on your timetable. Paul and I have argued vociferously but I never for moment thought he was anything but a good guy. And good guys around these parts (as I think you have noticed) are few and far between.

I didn’t believe these stories until the car forum posts were uncovered (apparently by Jack–I saw them elsewhere on FB–but thanks!). It was the continuous Sirius satellite subscription that really got me going. Paying $18/month to listen to Howard Stern is one luxury too many for my charity dollar!

I was always open to talk with folks on the forums over there but I did become dispirited by an influx of morons. I haven’t posted there in months and spent the time systematically deleting every one of my many posts there. Gene helped me by deleting the last few.

Anyway, Jeremy I think your piece above is excellent and I’m glad to see you have a blog.

I will end with Fagin’s theme:

In this life
One thing counts
In the bank
Large amounts
I’m afraid these don’t grow on trees
You’ve got to pick a pocket or two

No, I’ve actually been way too easy on Paul over the years. I know he presents himself as the rational good guy here to save us from ourselves, but when you do a weekly podcast and within 2 weeks, like clockwork, see your or your co-host’s theories appearing on his blog with no reference, you start to get suspicious that he might never have heard an original thought he wouldn’t steal.

Speaking of which, why DID you stay at the Paracast after they made your Imbrogno revelations for you, to put it nicely?

Am I overstating that? (I’m not asking sarcastically. I wasn’t there; I don’t know the details.)

Because I didn’t care who did it first. And I was dragging my feet on it because I knew that it actually wasn’t just theory but something that would actually affect a person. I wrote it all up and most folks know how it went down (it was actually despite Chris O’Brien not because of him). The funny thing is that Gene and Chris claimed that they did their own research but I have yet to see any evidence of it (mine is all posted at my blog). Don Ecker did some actual research and helped tell the story.

By the way “research” is probably really overstating the thing. For my part, it was just a phone call and a letter or two. But realizing that something was fishy about Phil came just from listening to his horrendously dumb stories. The same stories that podcast host after podcast host found riveting!

It didn’t matter that much to me who got the credit.

Speaking of which, I’m not sure I would worry too much about UFO theories. I’m not sure that I have heard an original one post-1975 from anyone in any UFO discussion

Yeah, but you wouldn’t. You’re the debunker. It’s in your DNA to never listen for anything original or find a story riveting. (Or do you? What would be an example of a ufological story you find riveting?)

I found some of Imbrogno’s work (or stories) riveting – but the more recent tales of djinn didn’t add up for me. This is one of those rare times when I suspected he was lying about his background–but not the way you did. I just thought there was no way he flew to Saudi Arabia and met with royalty and all that if he wasn’t CIA or something. I wondered if his “background” was a cover for that. Turns out, not so much.

Yeah, you may be right. I have earned some of the jadedness but I do try to approach things with an open mind. I do try to deal with evidence. I’m friend’s with most of the UFO skeptics (most regular skeptics don’t know too much about UFO’s) and I think every single one of them deal with evidence and try to get things right, not rhetorically but objectively.

I always found Valentich riveting. And the fairly recent revelations about the case, even more so but not towards a UFO solution.

There are no UFO stories (that I am aware of) that I find compellingly and clearly pointing towards what people commonly think of as UFO’s. But there are mysteries. Not every report can be explained.

Recently I was discussing the famous Teheran case with someone. That case is a mystery. But the way it is reported by pro-UFO believers does no service to it. Facts are mixed with supposition and truth starts fading away. UFO believers almost invariably try to gin up the facts for some reason.

One of the big problems from my side of the fence is when UFO-proponents pretend that we are (scientifically-speaking) standing on level ground pro and con. We aren’t.

The evidence for UFO’s is so scant, of such poor quality, and so non-confimatory that I suppose that believers are understandably defensive about it. But that is the hand they are dealt.

I often hear the argument, “Well, I experienced it and you didn’t.” True enough. I don’t argue those kinds of cases unless there is evidence involved. Just as I don’t argue with those to whom sweet Jesus whispers in their ear.

Is there so little evidence that UFO’s don’t deserve study (except as a sociological entity)? I’m not sure about that. I think the case could be made. And amidst the proliferation of cameras, the stark lack of independent multi-camera clear video of UFO events is becoming overwhelmingly damning.

But certainly cleaning house of the frauds, dumbasses and nincompoops and the discouraging of galloping up the stairways of supposition would make for a more stable platform from which to argue the opposite.

Yes, I realize that for some folks skeptics come across as pure assholes–me in particular. I think some of that is not just me but because these belief are actually more religious than objective. But I really am happy to talk about these things. And I really do endeavor to be polite until the conversation turns sour…

Lance, thank you for that. I hope this doesn’t sound as backhanded as it probably does, but that’s the most self-aware thing I’ve ever seen you write.

I’m prone to playing the role of (snarky) asshole myself. But I see the belief system all around and I am one of those people useless to you who will say, “I’ve had this experience” while providing zero evidence. And, truthfully, after saying, “No, no, really, take my word: it’s not all in my head” I can’t fully even define the experience. So I haven’t got much at all and I’m surrounded by con artists, delusional people, wish-fulfillment, and the occasional completely honest and discriminating person who is in the same boat.

The question is, how many sharks can we kill before we realize we’re in shark-infested water? I mean, what if this is the shark’s turf and we’re the intruders? There may be no getting rid of them, just the new belief system that we can and then live happily-ever-after in a real research field that cares about what it says it does.

You know what really irks me? Here’s the short version: If I bitch that this field is full of shit and the ufologist’s answer (as I have seen over and over) is “Well what did you expect?” Then ya know what? Fuckin’ write it on the dust jackets to all your books. I don’t remember seeing that warning when I entered the field. I don’t recall any valiant efforts to steer me away from anyone’s work by the authors themselves who do, indeed, say “What did you expect?”

Why is it expected that I accept Stan Romanek and Steven Greer will be sharing a stage with Jacques Vallee and Michio Kaku, or else I’m the asshole? Now that I’m here paying attention to what you told me was the most important issue on the planet since nonstick chewing gum, don’t give me that “you should have known” crap.

I see on the site named by the doubling of the eighteenth letter of the alphabet that Jeremy has been indicted on and soon to be brought before the magistrate for the charge of pitting people against each other in his post above. I don’t see that any prosecutor can win a conviction should it actually come to trial. I fear his post offers no evidence for a guilty verdict by any jury.

I echo Lance’s post about the sadness engendered by the poster with multiple kids telling the forum he’s looking to scrape up funds for a donation. From what i’ve read, it’s not his family’s first. And that’s an example of why I felt a touch of outrage when I read on the same forum that a Kia Optima was being driven to the tune of nearly 16,000 miles per year while years of solicitation of money were going on. It was on a brain squirt that I, as I related on April 15, entered in 2014 Kia Optima with his name into google and the posts on the Optima forums appeared. A second forum with a lone post was found later. It may be that someone else thought similarly and posted it to FB as I posted it to Jeremy’s letter and to the ufomag blog. I was careful to screen shot everything, as I did Lance’s exchange on this man’s forum.

I don’t know why Jeremy is being attacked when the revelation about the new car came about due to these things: 1. First and foremost is his letter here on his blog. 2. The thread entitled “What Kind of Car Do You Drive?” I owe a debt of gratitude to who started this thread, and within several screenshotted posts comes the kind of car and the mileage driven, albeit not completely on the new Kia, some clearly racked up by that 2011 Honda Accord whose fate after herculean and exemplary service was to be traded in for a new love. 3. A literal brain squirt from my quasi-senile mind to enter this into google. Frankly, I hope I wasn’t the first to post about the posts on the Optima forums. I was a bit peed off by the hypocrisy, but all in all an absurd affair. And the irony to me is that, and I meant this as a compliment in my posts here, that this man could have been the “Genius” at the Apple store who helped me with my Ipad. I truly admire his computer skills, and think he could have had a great paying job at an Apple store.

I am frankly shocked by how Bruce is being treated, and told he has no sense of right and wrong. The whole thing is a sad affair, though it’s clear I was rankled, as was Lance about the Sirius radio.

What I don’t understand is how moderators of the forum evidently didn’t know about all the money solicitation over the years.

And I think Lesley Gunter is one heck of a witty and perceptive lady. I’ve never read a post by her that wasn’t wry and funny. Her post on FB about how she should be the recipient of all those donations because she drives a car way older was hilarious.

Again, this is all about personal psychology. “Brownie” over there is one of my internet stalkers. She is someone we kicked off the Paratopia forum years ago and for just as many years she’s been following me around the net reading all my stuff, trying to “get” me wherever she can. She can turn any issue into an issue about me. It’s hilarious and kind of flattering. She must think about me A LOT.

And Kimball is just doing what Kimball does: projecting. “For people like JV it’s because they thrive on conflict and attention….”

And then sounding suspiciously like me: “every time someone like Steinberg cries poverty whilst driving new cars and so forth, he undermines the cause of those of us who really are committed to trying to combat poverty.”

Well great! We agree! In fact, that’s one of the reasons I wrote this in the first place! But see, when I write it, it’s because I’m a conflict whore. When they write similar words, it’s because they care. And the difference is that we’re not friends. If I were Paul’s friend, do you think for one second he wouldn’t be over here right now telling me what a hero I am?

They keep on acomin! His personal “newsletters” of course. Here is a list of titles of personal begging emails JUST from December 5, 2013, which was about the time the 2014 Kia Optima EX with Premium package was bought with the trade in of that wonderfully hard working 2011 Honda Accord. From the latest back to 12/5/13:

“From the Edge!” With more info about his anal tract problems! My gosh, more than we want to know.
“I’m Frightened!”
“Slight Progress But Still Pretty Bad”
“The End May Be Near!”
“The Situation Has Worsened”
“Correcting the Lies About My Situation”
“an Urgent Update!”
“I’m Running Out of Time!”
“Still Hoping for a Miracle!”
“An Important Update About Online Slander”
“Unprepared for the Worst!”
“A Critical Mid-February Update”
“An Update on Our Situation!”
“A Progress Report”
“Time is Short!”
“An Important Mid-January Update!”
“It’s Crunch Time!”
“A New Year’s Progress Report” in a personal email
“A New Year’s Progress Report” sent under the heading of the regular newsletter. Two in one day.
“You Can Still Make a Difference!” Twice again.
“A Critical Personal Update!”
“A Critical Winter Update!”
“A Special Holiday Request!”

A visit to his forum to the thread entitled “Please Help Gene” we can see his self righteous criticism of “online provocateurs” who are from his telling actually having, evidently, an impact on people sending money. We also learn more about his bowels.

I’m requesting donations for the ink and paper required to keep up with the printing out of these.

Oh, it’s always about his bowels. I’m tempted to read them all as a stage play.

In seriousness, perhaps Gene has a problem and can’t stop, like a hoarder or a gambler. It’s completely irrational to respond to public criticism that is nearly universally agreed upon as valid about his begging… with more begging.

If rational thought processes play a role, you don’t double down on begging, do you? It’s possible he can’t control himself.

On the RR site someone relatively recently subscribed to the regular newsletter gives his take on the begging emails he began receiving and how they are a “presumptuous abuse of his subscriber list.”

Said subscriber list abuser replies and takes him to task. The poster gave back way more than he got, a job exquisitely well done. My congratulations.

The proud owner of the new 2014 Kia Optima EX with Premium package which includes a heated steering wheel among other creature comforts ( heated seats to keep his posterior end soothed and to comfort that rear end about which we are learning entirely too much) then levels an accusation about donations against Jeremy.

This is a tired and overused saw that compares his years long and shameful begging into people’s personal mailboxes to unobtrusive donate buttons on podcast and blog sites and where the mention of donations is so rare as to be nearly nonexistent. This man tried that attack early in the comments to Jeremy’s letter and it’s an impotent point. Look at my post just above for the titles of his begging “newsletters” just since 12/5/13. Begging shamelessly right when he’s buying a loaded new car and then nonstop to the very present.

I’m glad the spotlight continues to shine hard and bright on this man, because HE WILL NOT STOP.

Well, yeah. Virtually all podcasters ask for donations or have a donations button on their site. No harm in that if you’re honest about what you’re asking for and why. Your list of urgent headlines demonstrates the problem. If Gene has truly been that broke all these years and can’t give up the new car or iPhone or iPad or hobbies that do not pay because, like every boy living in his mom’s basement, he’s got dreams of being a rockstar that you just don’t understand, man… well… maybe it’s time to stop buying him Cheetos because it isn’t helping his situation. It’s enabling it. If no one in his family is helping him, perhaps there’s a message there.

But now, having seen the furor this has caused, I have another question: What about everything else I wrote not having to do with Gene? Why are we all just picking on Gene when the totality of the ufological scene is the problem? Where’s all the energy going into stopping David Jacobs’ next lecture, for example–or putting a kibosh on Steven Bassett’s next fake congressional stunt?

When will we get just as upset over liars and con artists sharing the stage with decent researchers or the fact that this is a cottage industry/social club masquerading as a research field?

Oh, and before I forget? That he says I constantly beg for money on my blog is such a demonstrable lie as to beg the question: Has he actually read my blog? Or is this like the time he tore apart Paratopia Magazine for its terrible untruths, sexualized tabloid smut, and shitty editing… only to find out he never read that either, just took the word of the Hopkins/Jacobs propaganda faction and pretended to have read it?

When we called him out for lying about the magazine (none of what he said the mag contained actually existed) he admitted to having not read it and then “corrected” himself on his forum. But not, of course, in the newsletter than goes out to everyone, which contained the lie in the first place.

GS,
Terry on the RR site is taking you on exquisitely skillfully, and just like many others, he is pointing out inescapable facts and asking tough questions. Your posts there are slippery and evasive when it comes to the facts. You evade and twist and turn.

You bought a brand new 2014 Kia Optima EX with Premium package and were as pleased as punch over it, as is readily apparent on the Optima forums. When you bought it you were sending your invasive begging “newsletters” and subsequently and often you continued to send them with their shameful titles and exclamation points and replete with histrionic whining. And why do you keep calling them newsletters? In what remote way do they fit the definition of a true newsletter?

Since you continued the begging emails (see my post above with their titles), what are the details of what you claim were “favorable” financial circumstances you say prompted the purchase of a loaded new car? And loaded it is, ostentatiously so.

So, tell us here on this blog more details if you truly welcome as you say requests to give the facts and truth of all this.

And that Honda Accord, of 2011 vintage: that must still have run well. Of course it did, and my research tells me the gas mileage of the Accord and Optima are essentially the same. That Accord was one heck of a fine car, and a late model. Was it paid off when you traded it in?

I again encourage people to go to the ufomag blog, and read the satirical though solidly factual article “An Urgent Summer Update From,” well, you. Though facetiously written, its truth has withstood the test of coming on three years now. In the comments section to it is the full text of one of your “newsletters” during your eviction in the fall of 2012. My question: how do you do it? I mean not pay your rent so it keeps accumulating until another eviction looms?

Please enlighten us with facts, because my problem apart from having my email address hijacked for four and a half years is my distaste when I think of people giving you money better spent on children and grandchildren. In short, I don’t believe your “explanations” for such a campaign as you have instituted for four and a half years now.

So come on here and give us some real truth. And, again, why AREN’T you working in one of those Apple stores you say took away your Mac consulting?

For a list of histrionic titles to this man’s chronic crises laden “newsletters,” read one of my May 1 posts above. I’ve purposely refrained from posting for a while in hopes this man would stop his spamming. He hasn’t. The latest whiny missive in the list above, entitled “From the Edge!” with its patented and trademarked exclamation point was sent by him on April 30. But he has persevered in his campaign despite publicity about his acquisition of his new 2014 Kia Optima EX with Premium package. On May 2 came merrily into my personal mailbox “Your Critical Questions Answered,” with strangely no exclamation point, and then came on May 7 his “Special Crisis Update!” with said point back in service.

What prompts this post is a recent post on his forum in the thread entitled “Please Help…” from the family Lance told about and quoted in two of his comments on the RR site’s entry about this man’s response to the new car revelation. The family member tells us the family made yet another donation despite, well, you really must read it for yourself.

I call upon the co-host to tell us how he feels about this and more broadly how he feels about the whole situation. Did he know the begging spam continued unabated as the new car was acquired (at the expense of the betrayal of that fine and loyal steed of a 2011 Honda Accord who suffered the abject humiliation of being traded in for a newfound love of a Kia) and continued subsequent to its purchase and still yet continues? When did the co-host know of this new car? And now that he surely must know about it how does he feel about the continued spamming? How does he feel about Lance’s posts being altered and then removed? I caught this in real time with screenshots and Lance has told about it as had another commenter elsewhere about his own effort to bring up the new steed on the forum.

I ask again, too, who receives the money sent through the site’s donation button when that same button is featured as a payment method for donations solicited for both hosts (the plural is used again and again) in the regular newsletter and also as a payment method in this man’s personal spam “newsletters” for this man only. So, say ten bucks is donated using the donate button. Who gets the money when that button is the suggested method of transit for that crisp nice ten spot in the regular newsletter for both hosts and in the spam emails for the senior host alone? Am I being sufficiently redundant here to get this point across?

By the way, I found this man’s answers to “our” “Critical Questions” less than satisfactory and very disingenuous. I put that observation very euphemistically, as the stronger word will be avoided.

Steinberg used to be a paid writer, so he knows what word choices mean to the reader. Right? And yet he has taken to calling “donations” “payments.” If you’d like to make your payment to Gene–as if you owe him.

As a person who understands the power of word choices myself, I would NEVER refer to a donation as a payment. That would make me feel somewhere between guilty and sick. Gene doesn’t have that problem. Maybe Gene has another problem. Maybe he has a problem your payments cannot fix.

Whatever his problem, you’ve got one too, Jack Sprat. It’s that your plea to Chris O’Brien will fall on deaf ears. No one will answer you here or speaketh my name. They fear me. Just look what I’ve done to them: I’ve gotten people to ask the right questions. I doubt even Gene will be back to “correct the record” and then leave for the last and final time again and again.

You’ve come to the wrong place to get them to acknowledge you. You’re better off asking him on Facebook. He may not answer it but at least can’t claim not to have read it.

I do think your open letter here did reignite the bright blaze that should shine inexorably greater and greater on this man. Why is there no public post by him on his forum telling parents of sick children not to send him “donations,” or as you note, their “payments” to him, as if what he continually and shamelessly begs from people whose email addresses were hijacked from his regular newsletter list were bills due and payable on a regular schedule for the “work” and the “job” he does. What a joke.

I do think, however, Jeremy, that he and his co-host do read this letter and its comments, that is, check here to see what has been said. And I imagine more people than you may think may visit here, but you probably have stats on that, I don’t know. I just want people to recognize the extent and years and years long duration of his campaign of spamming people’s mailboxes with his repugnant and less than honest “updates” and “newsletters.” There are no words to describe his relentlessness in this, one of the reasons I’ve posted the actual titles of some of his intrusive begging emails. Disgusting bully with no sense of personal boundaries between himself and other people.

Among many things, what I notice is just how much sheer time he has to post asinine stuff on his asinine forum with its less than stellar “regulars” of tiny number who post a huge, huge percentage of the posts. I hope the visitors who go there do not sign up for the newsletter. The man has admitted in his spam ‘n’ begs (thank you Dr. Kokjohn for that gem) what was apparent all along, that people received his begging “newsletters” because they signed up for the regular newsletter, which itself is just a boring retread of the same old paragraphs and “themes” over and over.

I do wonder, especially in light of the spanking brand new 2014 Kia Optima EX with Premium package, if what he’s been doing all these years isn’t, well, crossing the line shall I say, ethically and, well, ahem, perhaps violations of other codes of human conduct toward their fellow humans.

I wonder, too, if the network he’s on knows about this campaign of his, with its flagrant usurpation of people’s email addresses and, well, all of it. Have they read these things he’s sent out for four and a half years, many, many of them since 2010 and during his tenure on their network? I don’t know, but how could they not know what a simple google search turns up.

As for facebook, Jeremy, I’m not on it, never have been. Just hasn’t been my thing. But your letter here has been as you say, that you have motivated people to shine the light on this man and to ask the questions. I hope the light and questions continue. Why should parents of sick children be scraping up “donations” and “payments” for this man who’s a bottomless pit when it comes to not earning his own way?

Pull up your pants, man, tighten that belt, and get your lazy ass to that Apple store or Walmart or that fast food place and put in some shifts. Quit posting your inane baloney on your silly forum and get your butt in gear. Then you’d have your rent and water bill and your wife’s health insurance premiums paid. It’s called work, man, and budgeting and planning. You waste so damn much time it’s absurd with your hobbies. You could, though, work AND do your shows. That’s clear as day. So pull up those sagging briefs, get them pants up past your knees, that’s the way, now, keep on pulling them up, there, now zip ’em and tighten the belt, button those top two buttons of your shirt, socks now and shoes, and get your butt in that deluxe heated seat and your hands on that heated steering wheel and let google maps get you job searching. And quit spamming people’s personal email addresses with your interminable begging. Got it? Now be a man and do it.

Oh, don’t get me wrong–of course they’re reading. But they can always have an out and lie and say they haven’t been.

My final thought on this is that anyone who believes Gene cannot podcast and work at the same time doesn’t get what podcasting is, primarily. It’s primarily a thing people do for fun or passion while they hold jobs. Last I knew there wasn’t even a way to sell episodes on iTunes. It’s assumed this is free–for now. That Jeff and I made money with Paratopia must kill Gene inside, because it’s rare and hard to do. You have to have a product people want to buy–and in a medium that folks expect to get for free with a similar guest pool as the free shows… ya know… ya gotta have a little more meat to your commentary than Star Trek and bagel jokes.

Soooo… there’s that. I couldn’t believe when I read that bit from him about making more money from ads than he would holding a job. DOUBLE YOUR WORTH, MAN! GET THAT JOB! EVERY PODCASTER DOES!

Or, like, go try to write for salon.com. SOMETHING. There’s got to be something he can do. And he knows it. And he doesn’t want to. And neither do I. And neither do most people. But we admit it and then get to work cuz that’s life.

Again, there’d be no problem if he’d just admit what this is about, but he refuses. Begging is his living. It has been for YEARS. And no recent sob story, true or false, changes that fact.

The inestimable Jack Sprat, who still steadfastly holds to the notion that he was the first to break the story on this site and the ufomag blog on tax day about the brand spankin’ new 2014 Kia Optima EX with Premium package which included, mind you, a heated steering wheel, but who modestly is willing to entertain the possibility that others or another may have simultaneously discovered acquisition of said vehicle, vehemently and vociferously maintains that decorum and unity prevail in keeping the light shining on this man’s reprehensible begging and spamming, and that no one, and I mean no one, can begin to emulate the degree to which this man has usurped the email addresses of unwitting newsletter subscribers to wage a four and a half years long campaign into their personal mailboxes…… and whew, time for a period to that one, Jack.

But, despite the above, my point: on the RR site are posts by one Danyael, who nails this guy to the wall most accurately in a series of posts. But a commenter following his posts brings up that old saw that Jeremy is somehow to be compared to this man who trades in a 2011 Honda Accord for a brand new bright silver 2014 Kia Optima EX with Premium package while STILL TO THIS DAY continuing after years and years of intrusive begging spam to send them relentlessly to people’s hijacked email addresses.

There is NO remote comparison. There exists objectively NO comparison.

A unity must remain to condemn the spam this man sends into people’s mailboxes. Danyael very eloquently makes his points and they are true. Go to the RR site to the article devoted to this man’s response to his acquisition of the brand new bright silver 2014 Kia Optima EX with Premium package and read Danyael’s posts.

The post following his is gratuitous and disingenuous in my opinion. A bright light needs to continue to shine on this man who continues to beg despite telling us in one of his latest begging “newsletters” that he’s willing to work. I agree with Jeremy that he should “double his worth” and get a real put-in-shifts job at an Apple store, Walmart, you name it, and he’d still have time to do his shows AND STOP THE BEGGING!

In rereading my post I see that I may have neglected to mention that this man acquired a brand new bright silver 2014 Kia Optima EX with Premium package which included heated steering wheel and that part of this transaction included trading in a 2011 HONDA ACCORD which I for one would love to have! I’m a very scant few years short of this man’s age and just finished a full day’s work.

Jack Sprat appreciates this letter on Jeremy’s blog which provided one of the venues on which he broke the story of the 2014 Kia Optima EX with Premium package, and Jack implores that unity prevail so that this man cease his shameless begging that causes parents of sick children with bills of their own to scrape up “donations” to him. I’ve yet to see this man publicly on his forum announce that this is wrong on the sticky thread entitled “Please Help…” Shameful.

I’m not sure if I mentioned that this man acquired a brand new bright silver 2014 Kia Optima EX with Premium package while continuing to send begging emails into people’s mailboxes, and that instead of working he posts self adulating comments on Kia Optima forums.

And how dare he post comments denigrating the poor 2011 Honda Accord for its poor lumbar support and inferior sound system compared to those of the brand new bright silver 2014 Kia Optima EX with Premium package.

The commenter is stalker “Brownie,” so it does’t count. She’s an irrational beggar, too. She’s begging everyone to hate me for reasons that only exist in her head. I’m a figment of her imagination at this point. It’s quite sad.

I see on the RR site that she continues to assert her contention, but it sure seems to me to be just contentiousness for its sake rather than any evidence that Jeremy can be compared to the man who is the master of “spam ‘n’ begs” (thank you, Dr. Kokjohn) and now the giddy master of the brand new spankin’ bright silver 2014 Kia Optima EX with Premium package.

The RR site in its article entitled “The……Debacle” calls on this man’s co-host to explain the situation, as I’ve asked too on this thread. I think she should echo that request. I want him to tell us who gets money sent through the donate button when that button is mentioned as the means to send money to both hosts on the regular newsletter and one of the methods (of several!) to send money to this man in his begging “newsletters.” And when did he know about the brand new spankin’ 2014 Kia Optima EX with Premium package? And what about those parents of sick children who have bills of their own posting on the forum about sending his partner “donations.” Lance has mentioned this and quoted one of the posts. It’s their own decision, of course, but wow, what a campaign of begging this man has waged.

I had to read her post a few times to understand just exactly where are Jeremy’s posts doing what she alleges. I sesrched far, far more than a “few” posts before and after this open letter entry and I see Jeremy advertising his books and a memory stick containing a whole heck of a heap of his and Jeff’s shows but it’s very brief and very legitimate to boot.

I say again that an unobtrusive donate button on a blog or podcast like Tim Binnall and Jeremy do is in no conceivable way remotely like what this man has done relentlessly and with shameless histrionic fervor and bullying into people’s personal mailboxes for four and a half years now.

This isn’t the first time I’ve searched for the posts she says are on Jeremy’s blog. I found one regarding donations but it was a facetious one and innocent.

The light needs to shine on the man who while begging shamefully acquired late last year a brand new spankin’ bright silver 2014 Kia Optima EX with Premium package.

When it comes to me, Brownie doesn’t know the difference between begging to pay one’s dental bills in the age of Obama Care and a post selling one’s wares. Because I’m evil. Because I kicked her off a message board. Years ago.

Caution: These are adults we’re dealing with. Wound egos at own expense.

Donate tabs are just fine. Most podcasters have them. Sometimes listeners ASK where to donate, believe it or not. There are kind people who get that this isn’t free for the producers in money or hours. And if that’s what Gene were about, we wouldn’t be having this discussion.

No, never did, though I will admit to having the merest and tiniest contemplation of giving a small donation when solicitations very first began in very early 2010. At that point I’d really enjoyed The Paracast, those first years when it was really a very good program, including those appearances by you and Jeff. It was just really rather spine tingling, and just a pleasure to listen to and think about. I know you and David had a falling out, not to bring that up except as a brief mention to say that those shows you and Jeff and others appeared on had a pleasant chemistry, and I enjoyed the give and take and round tables, etc. As for the man in question, I only knew that he seemed a good fellow, was certainly competent, and, well, I felt he contributed in his own way. It felt like a good bunch all around, both hosts and the guests. The few ads were not intrusive at all, though I’m proud to say I’ve never read the man’s two novels, just samples on the net that no words can begin to describe regarding their lack, shall I say euphemistically, of “literary” merit, ha, ha. Atrocious.

Then the begging began. I did consider donating a bit, but my inner caution stopped me without what shortly came to light. David resigned from the show, there was that interview he gave on, you know, that site, where in response there was a thread about the begging, I saw that I’d become a charter “subscriber” to “An Important Message From…” and the begging increased even more and continues, with another one coming just a couple of days ago. Then there was that huge thread at BOA. I was glad I hadn’t donated, so, no, my ire doesn’t come from having donated and feeling swindled, though those who gave in my opinion have been, and that’s no condemnation of them.

And of course, as had been said abundantly elsewhere by many, the current ads make the show impossible to listen to, and the show has steadily become worse and worse in my opinion. It seems guests are hard to find, and I don’t really and honestly understand how anyone can allow themselves to be associated with the show because of the usurpation and abuse of the email list for the begging. There’s been an increase of “listener roundtables” where the wise sages of the forum come on and wax “eloquent.” I do listen to the first few minutes of each show to hear the hosts’ opening statements. What a hoot and holler, and that’s not a compliment. A few weeks ago, a roundtable of this sort was hastily convened when a guest fell through.

The forum to me is a joke. As I’ve said before, it seems a tiny, tiny number of “regulars” post a huge, huge percentage of the comments. Pretension reigns supreme, and some of these “regulars” seem to me to enjoy collecting “likes.” They get into these hilarious lover’s spats with each other, too. The man in question posts quite a bit, I think to try to keep the thing alive. Inane stuff in my opinion, and he calls that a job. Those hours would be better spent WORKING to pay his bills. I visit now and then, and it seems to be slowing down even more. I haven’t posted in years and never sign in when I visit. I don’t understand how the co-host and moderators (are there any?) couldn’t have known about the begging. I do thank the former moderator who began the what kind of car do you drive thread because it was there that the man mentioned the Kia and how many miles he drove. Thank you! It was that thread that led to my discovery of the posts on the Optima Forums. And, yes, of course, it was hardly great detective work, and no doubt others discovered it contemporaneous with me.

I advise visitors to not sign up for the newsletter. He’s admitted that recipients of his begging “newsletters” get them because they subscribed to the regular newsletter, not that that surprised anyone I would think.

So, no, not a penny from me. I’d jump off a cliff before taking donations from a family saying each month is a struggle, but despite sick kids they’ve sent another donation. Or as Lesley said in a comment to that hilarious article entitled “An Urgent Summer Update From…” on the ufomag blog, she’d rather flip burgers or peddle Avon door to door than beg like he does, and this article was coming on three years ago!

Hey, Jeremy. I posted a couple of comments at the RR site, one of them by the way extolling your entry here on your blog. In later returning to that page on the RR site, I see it’s down, seeing a message that that page about this man’s response to the new car revelation was not available, yet the RR site itself is up. Is this a glitch on my computer perhaps, or has that specific page and its comments been removed from the site?

By the way, I don’t presume that my posts had anything to do with it, as they were approved and posted. Strange, but may be my own computer, but even that hypothesis seems strange.

Yes, it seems so, indeed. I don’t know if you’d read the latest comments on that “GS Responds” entry, but Danyael, who’s posted here I think, really took GS on big time in several posts, though appropriately worded and factual. And another commenter named Wayne posted quite vociferously, too, in a couple of posts, but very factually also. The thread titled “The GS Debacle” there is gone, too. Do you think the UFO Iconoclasts site’s ISP was complained to? I don’t know, just wondering. Looks like you’re the only one with some brass, Jeremy.

Yes I have posted here and on the iconoclast site. I responded to the comment about jeremy and others doing the same thing by basically saying that anyone who is doing things like gene should be called out on it. I followed up with another post explaining the difference btwn donation buttons and begging and stated something to the effect that jeremy should be called out as well if he has been doing things like gene does. As the iconoclast page is down I would like to follow up my last comment here;

I have read or skimmed the majority of jeremy’s blog posts and I have not come across anything that is even remotely on the same level as gene’s mailings. Having a donate button is one thing, expecting other people to fund your life for the last four or five years is another thing altogether.

For gods sake the man even set up a fundraiser for himself on gofundme.com entitled “emergency financial assistance for gene”. On this page he thanks those who have donated and than essentially tells them it is not good enough because he “needs more cash”. He also admits that he knows that he could get a job at walmart but it is just not something he wants to do because there is no future in it. He has also stated elsewhere that the revenue from the paracast provides him with an income that is slightly higher than a walmart employees. Why is he begging than? I know several people one of whom has a wife and two kids that he supports on his walmart pay. His wifes insurance should not be a problem either if he is a destitute as he says than they should easily qualify for medical assistance .

You know what though? I agree with Jeremy. Why waste so much time on steinberg? He has been doing this for years and will probably never stop. If the people who give him money are so stupid that they are unable to see the forest for the trees than so be it. I personally don’t see the draw in supporting a strangers life en toto…to each their own I guess.

I agree with you on several levels, Danyael. And I agree that too much of my time has been spent, too, on this man. Other commenters and you and I on this and other forums have been nothing but factual regarding him. I reiterate that I’ve saved everything I’ve ever received from this man, and saved everything that touched on anything I’ve posted. I think what he is is pretty clear, and if RR doesn’t have the brass balls to simply offer an explanation and then close his two recent threads about this man rather than remove wholesale what he and his readers have said, well, he squirms away again out of the light. Ironic because RR was calling for clarity on the situation and even called on the co-host for clarification, too. To take down comments he himself engendered by his own actions in posting his articles titled “The GS Debacle” and “GS Responds,” ahem, any different than what happened to Lance’s posts on this man’s forum? There’s similarity, in my opinion. To invite comment, then remove the comments, that’s wrong and even bizarre.

Thanks from me to Jeremy and the ufomag blog for keeping the light on. And, yes, again, I have certainly and obviously had my say. This man is doomed to be what he is, and what he is has been made abundantly clear by his own relentlessly persistent behavior and verified by many others in comments on the net. Despite the coyness of RR, he did perform a real service in getting the man more publicity and that had to have had an effect on his “activities.”

I see his show and forum dying ever faster. And this by his own actions. He himself said in one of his recent begging spams (they have hardly any time to be recent, because each is very quickly supplanted by the next!) that he gets very few “donations” from each “newsletter” but he keeps sending them to get what he can. What utter nerve. And, yes, Danyael, there’s that awful gofundme thing he’s had going for, well, look how long. Suspicious that a “donation” of $500 was just made and which is labeled an “offline donation,” meaning what exactly? Looks like one of those tip jars primed with a few bucks you see around.

Again, I advise people strongly to not sign up for his shows’ newsletters. I advise them to not sign up for the forum either. The usurpation and abuse of the email addresses of people for four and a half years is beyond the pale. I also urge any prospective guests to research this relentless begging and abuse of his subscribers and think hard if they want to be associated with a business that does this. And then, of course, there’s that brand new 2014 Kia Optima EX with Premium package that made this volcano of new publicity erupt.

I urge the network to examine this practice of his of sending his begging to people’s personal mailboxes during his whole tenure on it. I echo what others have said, that people signed up for the regular newsletter, not to being overwhelmed with his histrionic and whining begging. The begging spam outnumbers the “regular” newsletter easily, easily, and in fact I’ve received some of the begging UNDER the name of the regular newsletter, too, in addition to his disgusting “An Important Message From…!” “newsletter.”

And then, of course, the glaring acquisition of the spanking brand new bright silver 2014 Kia Optima EX with Premium package which included heated steering wheel obtained through the trade in of a perfectly functioning 2011 Honda Accord WHILE he continues to send his begging spam and while he still sends it.

I do think I will take a break myself and just hope that this man’s show just disappears and he supports himself. He has used the show and its email list as a platform to send spam. In that respect, even RR has a point by taking a break from the subject, and I thank him for the two entries on his blog. No doubt at all that they slowed “donations” to this man, but it’s this blog and the ufomag blog with the balls.

I have never met gene. I learned of him by occasionally listening to the paracast. It seemed, over time, his snide remarks on politics and social issues became more rude. Then, I saw how he responded to critics in the forums. I saw his first begging plea a few months ago. A short google search shocked me as to the scope of it. This burned me, for many reasons. I have been a career professional soldier. Two decades, two services, followed by several years as a private contractor. Three times shot, several blast injuries, and more third world illness than i care to remember. I have never been rich. I have been broke. In the last couple of years, the hospital has seen me six times., for long stays. I have a grown daughter on active duty, and a young son with autism. Nothing is easy for most people. But when a guy, with such outlets for speech, can on the one hand spout contempt for “conservatives”,,,,, climate deniers” gun owners and sundry other subjects, responding to criticism with snark and the air of “superior Knowledge” and noble belief, while begging all and sundry to “prevent he and his wife from being homeless” or write things like “thanks for helping raise my rent, now i need more for utilities and my wifes insurance”., I become apoplectic. He had the nerve to say “a job at walmart has no future” while claiming homelessness………………………………..Now i see how he pursues , like that kal korf Klown, anyone who calls it………………………………This man is something unpleasant you find on your shoe after a nice walk. People should shout out as long as it takes to get this creeps hands from the pockets of well meaning people…………and serious paranormal and ufo folks should stay off the paracast until he changes his ways, or is removed. Dont like it gene? TS 1st amendment, right before the second……………………….i suspect your cardboard statist views respect neither

Very eloquent, Wayne, and so true. Reprehensible that RR made such a deal of this man’s behavior by posting those two entries on his blog, teasing out heartfelt comments from people angry about this beggar’s behavior, then has the lack of courage, or whatever the reason, to give this man a pass by abruptly removing everything.

I wonder if the network is aware of the begging spam. I wonder if this is a law enforcement or better business bureau issue because of the long duration and sheer relentlessness of this man’s spam campaign, especially with that new car. Surely there must be something beyond mere lack of ethics attendant on his behavior, the sheer persistence and bullying of it. I don’t know. He’s evidently a business by his own frequent description of his show as one, and by the Making the Impossible label he gives it. If it’s a legal entity, I’d like to know if anything’s being violated. Again, I don’t know, but the utter nerve and gall with which he’s appropriated subscribers’ email addresses and spammed their mailboxes has to violate some tenet of our system. He proceeds with utter impunity, and I agree that the shouting should continue. But what can anyone really do, and that’s what he relies on. Alfred has eloquently on this thread or another ufomag blog thread about this man described how he operates.

The bottom line is that he’s going to continue with utter impunity because try as we might we are literally UNABLE TO COMPREHEND how someone like him thinks. On the most basic level, needing money, most people by far would TAKE ANYTHING to earn money legally. We cannot IMAGINE shaming ourselves like he does, with impunity tearing down personal boundaries of others to beg of them shamelessly.

And I’ll end this by mentioning his OWN SON because he has mentioned HIS OWN SON IN HIS BEGGING SPAM. In telling us about his imminent homelessness (supposedly; who knows what is truth from him?) he tells us his son lives overseas and THEN NAMES THE COUNTRY HE LIVES IN! HOW SICK, SICK, SICK is that? The thought of bringing my own children into that repels me.

Oh well, nothing really to do except watch him continue to destroy himself.

No Doubt Gene is using people for his own profit. Being an accountant, I can show you how you can present to the world, that you are in great debt on paper while living high on the hog. I see that happening here. I do not doubt his son is living overseas to avoid the embarrassment he would endure here with friends and co-workers over his father’s antics.
As for Gene’s support of Jacobs, in the Jacobs/Woods debacle. I must say I have heard her speak, her story in her own words, on one of her interviews. I think she brought things on herself, by trying to pull a fast one and get some recognition/money from the whole thing. She is inarticulate, unintelligent and quite plainly trying to cover her own mental health issues by pointing fingers and blaming others for what SHE started. In this regard she is like GENE. She takes no responsibility for her own situation, and she does not get my support or my sympathy.
Steve Greer? Wow he is a piece of work! I find it hard to believe a successful physician (IF he ever was a successful physician) would give up a lucrative medical career and become a major sleaze (it must pay much more money than a medical position) and hoax supporter. It baffles me that people actually follow him and do not see him for the fraud he is.
As for the former Mrs. Budd Hopkins, I do believe her story. Yes she is no doubt getting revenge, but her story does have a major ring of truth to it. I believe the truth getting out is important and if she gets a measure of revenge along with it, GOOD LUCK to her I say.

“She is inarticulate, unintelligent and quite plainly trying to cover her own mental health issues by pointing fingers and blaming others for what SHE started. In this regard she is like GENE.”

–That is complete horse shit. Here’s the deal: David jacobs ENTIRE DEFENSE is that she’s crazy because she stopped believing in instant messenger aliens. That’s it. So anything that anyone else comes up with that falls short of that or goes beyond it–isn';t even what HE’S saying.

“As for the former Mrs. Budd Hopkins, I do believe her story. Yes she is no doubt getting revenge….”

–Why do you say that? I keep hearing this “revenge” thing from people, but nobody says revenge for what. For a divorce that happened years prior? If so, what do you know about that divorce? Who divorced whom? Why? What was their relationship like after? Why didn’t she seek and destroy back when she was presumably angry? Why does it matter anyway if what she says is true?

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He got 10k from me recently lol I thought I would help the poor bastard out.
I thought I bet not many people would send the guy a donation.
Being a millionaire it doesnt affect me much at all so lesson learnt.

Yep Serious That guy is a Con Man Big Time. I will go to court and swear on it if you want.
He wanted me to pay for his brother in laws Funeral expenses on top of that.
This Guy is making a Motsa out of old people like me and my wife.
I felt sorry for him then my wife found this blog. Thank God she showed me this blog.
I am quite angry about it now,so is my wife. He wanted us to buy him a House. lol
The more we gave the more he wanted. How many poor people have been taken
down buy this greedy lazy Sicko.

How did you come into contact with him? Something really should be done. I know that people have been trying to warn others about this shameless grifter for years, but others continue to be drawn into his web. Are there legal steps that could be taken? He has a presence on various forums and Facebook pages. Perhaps posting your story in those might help. You might also think about contacting Ted Andersen of the Genesis Communications Network. There seems to be a moral obligation to do something to protect others from this psychopathic behavior.